Running Up That Hill
by Red Dragon - Jura
Summary: Takes place after 'Nameless/Faceless' and with reference to 'Revelations.' Reid's struggling after being shot in the leg. Multi-chapter fic. Reid!Centric


Running Up That Hill

Summary: Takes place after 'Nameless/Faceless' and with reference to 'Revelations.' Reid's struggling after being shot in the leg. Multi-chapter fic. Reid!Centric

Disclaimer: I don't own anything!

Title comes from the song by Placebo.

AN: This story is the result of a further plot bunny that decided it wanted to annoy me and wouldn't go away until I wrote this fic. Hope you enjoy it!

Chapter One:

He hissed lightly as his foot made contact with the floor.  
>Even though it was eight weeks since he had been shot, Spencer Reid was still in a great deal of pain. Slumping onto the couch, he let his crutches clatter to the floor. God he was tired, and his leg hurt like hell.<br>After a long and brutal case in Indianapolis, all Spencer wanted to do was sleep. He had tried to do so on the plane, but the intense throbbing in his leg had not allowed him to.  
>The pain having only intensified by his movement up four flights of stairs to his apartment, even with crutches, Spencer knew he had no chance of sleeping now.<br>Rummaging his hand in the satchel still slung around him, he pulled out a brown bottle of prescription medication, but eyed it with a sigh. Empty.  
>Dropping the bottle back into his bag, Spencer groaned, though he knew that the pills wouldn't have helped him anyway.<br>They were a mild prescription; partially due to the fact that his leg really shouldn't be hurting as much as it did, but also because he needed to keep his head clear when they were on a case.  
>But that didn't stop him wishing that he had something stronger.<p>

"_Sinners should be punished." Tobias Hankle staring down at him with a look of pure disgust that it had made Reid cringe.  
>The smell of burning fish guts, making him feel sicker than he had ever felt in his entire life.<br>A needle and vials of clear liquid; wanting the pain to go away, but knowing that this wasn't the answer.  
><em>"_No, please, I don't want it." Begging and pleading for Tobias to not inject him; to not make him into something he didn't want to be.  
><em>_A feeling like ice coursing through his veins and the pain slowly seeping away; a small smile gracing his face even though he knew that from there it was all going to be downhill.  
>His hands clasped around the cool vials as he slipped them from Tobias' pocket into his own while feeling no guilt whatsoever.<br>The days that followed; anger, pain and his hand constantly reaching into his satchel to touch the two small vials that seemed to calm him._

Spencer jerked, attempting to push the dark memories back to the far recesses of his mind, but nonetheless thinking of how the Dilaudid had helped him last time; thoughts of the pain just melting away. The cool feeling of...  
>No.<br>Spencer shook his head and reached into his pocket, clasping his own 1 year sobriety coin that lay there.  
>He couldn't go back to that. He refused to. The last time he had taken Dilaudid, he had ended up missing the jet and nearly lost his job.<br>Everyone made mistakes in their lives, it was human nature, but only the weak repeated those mistakes.  
>And Spencer Reid refused to be weak.<br>But still, he couldn't carry on like this, in so much pain.  
>One hand clutching the coin and the other touching his tender knee, for the firs time in a while, Spencer felt well and truly conflicted.<p>

The next morning, the elevator doors at the BAU office pinged open, and Spencer Reid stepped out, crutches still underneath both armpits, but a smile gracing his face none the less.  
>As he entered the bull pen, Morgan looked over.<br>The older man had known that Reid had been in pain the past couple of weeks, though he had no idea how much, but hadn't had time to question the younger agent about his welfare with everything that had been going on with his promotion, Foyet, Hotch and Haley, for which he felt guilty.  
>He had seen the small grimaces that Reid would make whenever his leg caught on something or he had to put his foot on the floor, and had noticed that the young man seemed less jovial and Reid-like than Morgan was used to.<br>So seeing Spencer exit the elevator with a smile on his face and no grimace or sign of pain in sight, the acting Unit Chief couldn't help but worry.  
>Especially when Reid smiled directly at him and he noticed that while there was some genuine happiness in the kid's face, some of it was also clearly forced.<br>Morgan knew that something was going on with the kid and, while he didn't know what exactly, he was determined to find out; one way or another.

Thanks for reading! I hope you enjoyed it! Please review!


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